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Penguin books on the iPad

Submitted by Griffey on Mon, 03/08/2010 - 19:24
in

 Here’s a demo of the sorts of ebooks that Penguin is developing for the iPad. Honestly, I find this a little uninspiring…really not very innovative. Let’s hope that other publishers can really find new ways of producing and presenting content.

 



Books vs iPad - everyone wins

Submitted by Griffey on Thu, 03/04/2010 - 17:40
in

Books in the Age of the iPad

Amazing article about content vs form, and how the iPad will start a revolution of not just digital books, but it may start a rebirth of amazing physical objects.

We’re losing the dredge of the publishing world: disposable books. The book printed without consideration of form or sustainability or longevity. The book produced to be consumed once and then tossed. The book you bin when you’re moving and you need to clean out the closet.

These are the first books to go. And I say it again, good riddance.

...

You already know the potential gains: edgier, riskier books in digital form, born from a lower barrier-to-entry to publish. New modes of storytelling. Less environmental impact. A rise in importance of editors. And, yes — paradoxically — a marked increase in the quality of things that do get printed.

Every librarian who worries about the loss of printed material: Read This.



The Brads – Why DRM Doesn’t Work

Submitted by Griffey on Wed, 03/03/2010 - 13:15

The Brads – Why DRM Doesn’t Work:

An awesome webcomic about the difficulties of using Overdrive in a public library to download an audiobook.



Librivox Fundraising: Give!

Submitted by Griffey on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 17:36

Librivox Fundraising: Give!:

Librivox is an amazing site of FREE audiobooks, and needs donations to stay online. Go, give…keep free audiobooks available to everyone.



The Future Is: Swarming Intelligence

Submitted by Griffey on Mon, 02/22/2010 - 17:38
in

There’s a ton of research being done these days on swarm intelligence, and how we can recreate in software the physical interactions of things like insects and schools of fish in order to more efficiently program the robots of the future. This week I saw two different examples of this online that blew me away. These aren’t products, certainly, but they point the way to a future that I’m not sure most of us will even recognize. The next 20 years will be truly unbelievable.

Take a look at both of these…trust me, it’s worth it.

Curious Displays

FlyFire



Viewfinder

Submitted by Griffey on Mon, 02/22/2010 - 03:30
in

If you are among the diehard fans of Apple’s presentation software Keynote (I do all my talks using Keynote, and am an admitted rabid fanboy) I have found an amazing app that will save you time and make your presentations even better:

Viewfinder

So what’s it do? Viewfinder acts as a search tool for Flickr, allowing you to search for photos of a specific size (to fit a slide size) and a specific Creative Commons license. It then gives you one button that pushes the image into Keynote. One more button and you’ve got all the attribution information copied over.  While this isn’t going to useful to everyone, for those who find themselves creating a few presentations a year, this can save you tons of time and effort in finding images to illustrate your talks.

Head over and take a look at the video tutorials to get an idea how it works (they aren’t embeddable, sadly). There is a free trial that limits you to 2 downloads per session, but will give you a good idea of the power of the program. Check it out…you won’t be sorry!



Digital Books and Your Rights: A Checklist for Readers

Submitted by Griffey on Tue, 02/16/2010 - 19:52

Digital Books and Your Rights: A Checklist for Readers:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation provides a checklist of things to think about regarding privacy and the rights of the reader where eBooks are concerned.

Consider this a must-read for librarians of all types.



Apple to wrap digital books in FairPlay copy protection | Technology | Los Angeles Times

Submitted by Griffey on Mon, 02/15/2010 - 21:47

Apple to wrap digital books in FairPlay copy protection | Technology | Los Angeles Times:

The LA Times reports that Apple iBooks will use the Apple FairPlay DRM schema, but that publishers will have the option of delivering DRM-free titles if they wish.